Tribunal orders pepper duties

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Anti-dumping duties are being collected on imported greenhouse bell peppers from The Netherlands for the next five years because they were threatening to injure Canada’s industry.

That ruling was released Tuesday by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, an independent, quasi-judicial body that reports to Parliament through the finance minister. In its written decision, the Tribunal says peppers being dumped on to the Canadian market from The Netherlands did not cause injury but was threatening to. The Tribunal will issue reasons for its finding on November 3.

The ruling was triggered by a complaint from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers in January that unfair pricing of Dutch greenhouse bell pepper imports was causing serious injury to Ontario growers. The Ontario organization represents producers growing more than 1,824 acres of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Greenhouse pepper growers from other Canadian provinces are also concerned about the imports.

While the Tribunal has concluded that the dumping only threatened injury and did not actually injure Ontario growers, George Gilvesy, the provincial greenhouse grower organization’s general manager says it’s the bottom line that counts: “at the end of the day they found it right to assess the duty.”
 
Gilvesy says they’re pleased the duty is being collected. The objective of the growers’ complaint “was to preserve our marketplace and protect it.”

He says the anti-dumping duties will be in place for five years. “Any price that they put on it (the peppers) they will have a duty of 195 per cent.”

Gilvesy says he understands the 195 per cent is one of the highest levels of dumping duties ever assessed. “We think it’s pretty significant.”
 
Earlier this year the Canada Border Services Agency investigated the question of whether Dutch pepper imports were being dumped. In its final decision released last month, the Agency found that 99.4 per cent of the greenhouse bell peppers from The Netherlands were dumped last year and the weighted average export price was about one-third of the normal value. The Agency determined the normal value (in Canadian dollars) for 2009 to be $3.55 a kilogram, while the export price was $1.22 a kilogram.

Gillian Burnett, assistant secretary of the Tribunal, says if The Netherlands decides to appeal the Tribunal’s decision they can apply for a judicial review to the Canadian federal appeal court. That has to be done within 30 days of the date the Tribunal’s decision was released.

Officials from the embassy of The Netherlands in Ottawa couldn’t be reached for comment. BF